Comments on: Playing Together: It’s What We DO

By: trippenbach

trippenbach — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 17:17:35 +0000

UPDATE: Kotaku weighs in . . .

By: trippenbach

trippenbach — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 17:43:34 +0000

Tanith, you're right. This is the Wii's genius. You point, you play. And through clever design (and marketing!) this is the image they've managed to project. The Wii says: get people together in your living room, wave the stick around, and you laugh with your friends. That's what PLAY is. Anyone can get behind that. Compare with this. It's really cool, but show it to your girlfriend and she'll probably say 'WTF?' It preaches only to the converted. The great thing bout the Wii (and the systems like it that will undoubtedly follow) is that

It’s very intuitive and easy to get into.

But that doesn't mean that you can't do complicated, subtle, sophisticated games with it! Easy to learn, unintimidating, but with great depth - good combo.

By: tanith6227

tanith6227 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 23:23:55 +0000

“Bioshock? Well, a brooding noir first-person-shooter treatise on objectivism may be a critical success, but there’s something of a cognitive barrier to entry . . . unless you’re already steeped in the FPS genre and know what to do with [a video game controller].”

I think this is one of the reasons that the Wii is enjoying such commercial success; the motion-tracking Wiimote makes getting into many of the games dead easy – just wave the thing around and see instant results. No need for complex button combinations, just a flick of the wrist and away you go. It’s very intuitive and easy to get into.

Of course many Wii game do demand finer control for specific actions, but you can pretty much get through all of Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess using the extremely simple motions you learn in the game’s first ten minutes. That’s true accessibility and I think it’s just what the industry needs to get into even more homes and attract a larger audience.

By: Mark Iddon

Mark Iddon — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 20:06:38 +0000

It still amazes me that people don’t consider gaming something that they do or are interested in, and yet everyday what are the back 3-4 pages of every newspaper dedicated to?.. You guessed it, Play. I do think that the Wii has increased gaming acceptance and increased games discussion on the whole. It has created an entry level conversation point for people all over the country. Hell, my wife even just went halves with me on a PS3?? I mean, that there in itself, is a breakthrough.

By: trippenbach

trippenbach — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 16:45:06 +0000

Looks like you're not the only one, Rusty. Ken Levine thinks the same thing.

By: rustedangel

rustedangel — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:48:32 +0000

oh yeah, I will also add a voice of dissent; I thought Bioshock was fool’s gold.

Repetetive gameplay, repetetive environments, an underwritten story (yes. underwritten.), and one of the worst twists in modern gaming. I mean, I LOVE having all agency removed from me. I like it when a game makes fun of me for blindly follwing it’s invectives. I was doing that because I wanted to have fun playing your game! So sorry… assholes!

grrr!

By: rustedangel

rustedangel — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 15:45:29 +0000

All very true.

I will add this: perhaps it is not just that social gaming is on the rise, but that the acceptability of adult gaming in general is increasing.

20 years ago video games and dungeons&dragons were the strict social domain of the 8-14 year-old set. Now, parents play WoW with their children, and rooms full of 30-something business execs gather to play table-top games on the weekend.

I hail not just the social-gaming revolution or the still-powerful single player experience, but the entire culture of the acceptability of play in general.